I spent about almost seven years doing that, and it got to the point where it was time for me to exit. I had a business partner and I thought it was time for me to do something else, and he wanted to take over the reins. And so we separated and I found myself actually not as an entrepreneur again, but at a software startup for about a year and a half, and something that just kind of just fell in…
Acquiring Minds
Trades Over Tech: Buying an Appliance Repair Business
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Somebody was, was looking for, you know, something that I could provide them from a, from a technology perspective. And I joined the. That startup and spent about a year and a half there. And during that time, you know.
I. Had that yearn to do my own thing again, you know, and, and, and, you know, I was, I was, yes, I was an executive part, you know, part of that team, but I wasn't a founder, and I wasn't the one really making the decisions and pointing the company in, in, in, in that. In the direction or, you Know, it was, I was more, for lack of better term, I was just, you know, a worker, so to speak. Right.
And so it was, the itch was getting back quickly and I, I needed to do something else, man.
I knew I didn't want to start something from scratch because I'd been down that road before and that road can, can, can be challenging, you know, for the first year or until you get that first million dollars worth of revenue, or heck, even 3, 5 million dollars worth of revenue, it's just, it's tough. Brian, how much revenue did you get the MSP to at the end? It was just 5.5 million dollar.
Great. Yeah, yeah, great. Yeah, great. And also at this point in the story, you have a decently sized family, right? Yeah, yeah. So at this point now I've left the MSP and I'm at the software startup, the SaaS startup. And I think we were on baby number four somewhere in that range.
Right. So yeah, give or take a baby. Give or take a kid or two. Yeah. But it, I just wasn't in the position to do what I did initially with, with, with the msp, Start from scratch in a buddy's garage, making.
No, like the first year I was at the msp, I made no money. Yeah, right. And that's some of the sacrifices you have to make when you have a startup. Unless you have, you know, a big chunk of capital sitting in the bank, you know, and even that can still be risk, can be really risky.
Well, this is, of course, one of the most practical reasons for ETA is that there is salary to be had immediately. Absolutely, absolutely. Yep. 100%. And at the time we were still living up in Northern Virginia, and my wife and I had always talked about moving south, getting to warmer climates.
And so it kind of coincided with our move out of the D.C. metro area down into Florida, Tampa, which is where we're at now. So I was searching and looking for a business to buy, but also looking for a city and a community to plant my family in.
Yeah. And Brian, not wanting to start something from scratch, but wanting to return to be an entrepreneur, certainly understand that path, but the idea of buying a business did it, or you seeing stuff online, did you know somebody who done it? Did you, did you. Always understand that it was possible?
Because for a lot of people it's a revelation that it's even possible. No. Yeah, you know, I, I had no exposure to M and A or, or, or, you know, or, or acquisitions at all, even at my msp. I heard a thing or two about it.
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